diff --git a/openlibrary/plugins/upstream/mybooks.py b/openlibrary/plugins/upstream/mybooks.py
index 749578609b0..5ea94643238 100644
--- a/openlibrary/plugins/upstream/mybooks.py
+++ b/openlibrary/plugins/upstream/mybooks.py
@@ -60,9 +60,14 @@ def GET(self, username, key='want-to-read'):
                     'work': {
                         'title': w.get('title'),
                         'key': w.key,
-                        'author_keys': [a.author.key for a in w.get('authors', [])],
+                        'author_keys': [
+                            a.author.get("key")
+                            for a in w.get('authors', []) if a.author
+                        ],
                         'author_names': [
-                            str(a.author.name) for a in w.get('authors', [])
+                            str(a.author.name)
+                            for a in w.get('authors', [])
+                            if type(a.author) is not str
                         ],
                         'first_publish_year': w.first_publish_year or None,
                         'lending_edition_s': (